166: Storytelling Tips for Hardware Product Launches

Steve Multer is the author of Nothing Gets Sold Until The Story Gets Told which can be found on Amazon and all major book retailers.  He has done over 20,000 presentations and worked with major hardware brands such as Cisco, Panasonic, Siemens, HP, Philips, Xerox, and over 100 more, all on crafting product and brand messaging. Today Steve is going to share some valuable knowledge on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers can understand what corporate storytelling is, what the main components of a well-crafted sales or brand story has, and best practices around both launching a new hardware product but also maintaining the brand connection for long-term customer loyalty.

Today you will hear us talk about:

What is corporate storytelling

Metrics of a product (what investors want to hear) vs corporate storytelling (what the public wants).

Don’t tell the customer what you want to tell them, tell them what they want to hear. This requires knowing your audience.

The platform / pillars of a great story: Value, passion, and connection.

How do you change people’s lives, for the better, with their product.

Make sure to maintain your personal passion in advertising.

How connect with people by telling them a story that they recognize and that they become a part of.

You can be the best advocate to your own hardware product, you are the story.

Investors invest in you as a human being.

Combine your product with your story.

Trust yourself to sell your own story, and bring the human passion in.

Stakeholders, buyers, investors will be more lenient when they believe in the story and the passion behind that story.

Build a community first.

How do you sell

How do you keep customers

What is going to sustain and grow your hardware product and thus product brand for 10 years or more.

EPISODE LINKS:

Steve Multer Links:

LinkedIn | Book

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

https://www.ProductStartup.com/

Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube

PTC Links:

https://www.ptc.com/

OnShape | Creo

Mako Design Links:

https://www.makodesign.com/

YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter

Kevin Mako Links:

Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter

Partner: PTC’s best-in-class software solutions Onshape: The only cloud-native product development platform that delivers full-featured computer-aided design (CAD), integrated product data management (PDM) and enterprise analytics in a single system, and Creo: 3D CAD solution that provides designers with the most innovative tools to build better products faster, such as generative design, additive manufacturing, real-time simulation, IIoT, and augmented reality.

Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories.